Real Estate --- Ready To Show Your Home? The phone rings, your real estate agent is on the other line with a prospective buyer! Oh no, the house is a mess! You throw everything on the living room floor into the living room closet, all the toys in the kids rooms end up under the bed, all the dirty clothes in the laundry room up in the cabinets. You run out the door with the satisfaction that your house looks great. Now all you can think about is the potential offer you’ll receive soon.
Enter the agent. This poor, unsuspecting soul has done her best to round up as many buyers as she can to assist you in selling your home. She is excited because this one seems like a good candidate. Your house is exactly what this buyer has been talking about for a week. They are about to take a private tour. The key word there is private.
These people who are looking through your home are not going to just walk from room to room. They are going to open cupboard doors. They will peep inside the medicine chest. They will open every door and built in drawer there is in the house. After all, they will want to see what they are actually buying. They will want to know how much space is in the kitchen. They will want to know if their things will fit in the closets.
When you put your house on the market everything is an open book. People will be looking through with a fine tooth comb to see what the house has to offer. This means looking in places a guest would not even go near. There are some things you should do to prepare your home for the people who will be coming in during the showings and open houses.
The first thing you should do is pack up anything in any of the closets which are not necessary. Put them in storage, whether it is in the garage, basement, or even a storage unit. You will want to put away anything you will not need. This will make the closets more roomy and appear larger.
You will also want to clear clutter from built in drawers. Again, put away what you do not need. There are some bedrooms which have the added convenience of built in drawers. Some people keep very personal items in these drawers. Anyone who is interested in buying your home will be looking in them. If you do not want things seen then move them to an appropriate place where they will not be discovered.
Many good real estate agents will tell you to prepare your home so that anyone walking in can imagine their possessions in the space. This means removing any personal items like family pictures. You will want to make the house appear as neutral as possible. This can allow the potential buyer to see the house and not the decorations. They can envision how the rooms will look when they are in the home.
By packing up what is not necessary will help you when it comes time to move. You will have many of the things in the closets and drawers already packed. This makes it so much easier to not leave anything behind. You can also prevent any embarrassment when people start looking behind closed doors. Back to San Diego downtown real estate article index |
